Thanks To Video, Opera Mediaworks Has a Great Q2 On The Cusp Of Its Spinoff

Reporting earnings under Opera Software for the final time – the sale of Opera’s consumer-facing browser business is expected to close by the end of September – Opera Mediaworks on Wednesday cited a 23% increase in Q2 revenue year over year to $114.4 million. That number represents the lion's share of Opera Software’s total revenue of $162.9 million for the quarter.

Video brought in $76.8 million in revenue – 67% of overall company revenue.

It’s part of an overall trend around publishers looking to cut down on waste and focus on fewer, but higher-impact, ad units. Video fits that bill.

“We’re seeing publishers moving away from standard banners and looking at video as a more premium, higher-eCPM ad unit to help monetize their apps,” Opera Mediaworks CEO Will Kassoy told AdExchanger. “They want to do less advertising, but make it worth more and drive more monetization – one video can deliver what 20 banner placements can do.”

To that end, performance revenue was up 33% for the quarter, driven by an increase in demand for in-app video inventory and international expansion, especially in Europe and APAC where there’s a lot of room to grow.

“We’re starting to see other regions shift dollars to mobile,” Kassoy said. “There’s still a lot of TV and retail spending in Europe and Asia Pacific, but it’s moving toward a better balance in the media mix between TV and digital. The growth we’re seeing is over double the business we had last year in those regions.”

Video is also having an impact on programmatic sales, where Opera Mediaworks saw 86% YoY growth.

“We’re lighting up more video placements in our programmatic exchange and connecting to some of the biggest DSPs that have high-quality brand advertisers looking to make transactions in a more automated fashion,” Kassoy said. “Today, our direct sales force can call on 1,000 or 2,000 brands, but with our programmatic marketplace we can call on 10,000 or 20,000 different brands, which means we’re tapping into more dollars.”

For the moment, Opera Mediaworks is still technically listed under Opera ASA. When the sale of Opera Software goes through at the end of September, Opera Mediaworks will officially become an independent public entity comprised of Opera Mediaworks itself, Opera TV and an apps and games division which caters to carriers.